New York troupe charms with classy, comic 'Pinafore'

Aye, matey -- it was a bit of a stout but nimble crew that set sail Friday evening as the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players took to The Whiting stage with "H.M.S. Pinafore."

Indeed, the eccentric and unexpected were the order of the day as this melodic Victorian satire delighted the large crowd with its class and comedy.

Predictably, Pinafore takes place on the deck of a large British sailing ship. The plot concerns Josephine (Laurelyn Watson Chase), lovely daughter of the ship's beloved Captain Corcoran (Edward Prostak). She has fallen in love with the lowly seaman Ralph Rackstraw (Colm Fitzmaurice) but has been promised to the pompous Sir Joseph Porter, first lord of the admiralty (Stephen Quint). Will she follow her heart or stay true to her father's promise?

Among the colorful characters on board is Little Buttercup (Angela Smith), a woman who arrives with wares to sell, and snarly seaman Dick Deadeye (Louis Dall'Ava), who is considered the villain since he insists on speaking the unvarnished truth.

Billed as "pitch-perfect," this company more than lived up to that reputation. Quite probably the presence of another "main character" -- director/conductor Albert Bergeret -- accounted for the show's dramatic and musical precision. Aside from some occasional moments when vocal vibrato swallowed diction, the performance was a total delight.

Always a crowd pleaser, Sir Joseph's "When I Was a Lad" nearly had the house singing along augmented by Quint's hysterically proper portrayal.

Bergeret orchestrated another audience favorite Friday when "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" found the Captain, his daughter and Sir Joseph getting progressively drunk on champagne as the musicians continued to repeat the tippling refrain. Finally, threatened with a gun and a large stick by actors appearing to slip out of character, Bergeret ended the song to the riotous applause of the audience.

Keeping this 130-year-old show fresh, jokes about cellphones and modern starlets were sprinkled throughout, along with lots of sight gags, often revolving around the Captain's attraction to Little Buttercup, whom he described as "a plump and pleasing person".

All was finally resolved between the young lovers when Buttercup admitted to having "practiced baby-farming" in her youth and mixing up two babies. She then revealed the Captain is really a commoner, and Josephine's love is high born.

Subtle humor was in ample supply as evidenced when the Captain returned dressed in Ralph's seaman's garb and spoke in a low-born Cockney dialect, while Ralph's demeanor found him smug and neatly dispossessed of his former whiny persona.